I just came back from a walk where I explored some of the areas of campus my usual routes never take me to, and I found a lot of hidden beauty around (even in the middle of winter!). Things like evergreen bushes growing beside a brick walkway under a bridge, or a graffiti vista you can only see by taking the road the delivery trucks are supposed to go down–I really like happening upon those things. The juxtaposition of nature with man-made things has always been a favorite subject of mine. A bug crawling inside a discarded cup, ivy snaking up a wall, a dilapidated house hiding in the woods! Taking some time out of my usual routine to seek out those things was a very good idea. Now, sitting at my computer again, I feel like that half-hour or so was worth about two hours of recharging in any other way! I’m a big believer in the helpful effects of nature (and wow I can’t wait for spring).
Wilderness, and the woods in particular, play a big part in both the short story I’m writing for Intro to Creative Writing (which I’ll post here when it’s done) and the novel I’m working on in my free time. The short story is kind of an outlet for the ideas that I don’t think will make it into the novel, so it’s no wonder. In both of those stories, the woods conceal people living a way of life that I think most people would consider bad (in the novel) or at least very unorthodox (in the short story), so, um…I guess in my writing at the moment I’m not exactly channeling Walden or anything. But I guess in my depiction of nature, just like with people, I see the best but show the worst…or something?!
Speaking of showing the worst, for one of my courses this semester I’m reading Frankenstein, and I guess I’m not surprised that pop culture’s depiction of the story is very, very different than the original book. Frankenstein as a passionate, brilliant, borderline-psychotic college student who creates a life and then is immediately terrified by what he’s done appeals to me way more than a mad scientist hunched over his experiment in a secluded castle (in the same way that a depressed, sensitive, confused young Hamlet interests me way more than a guy grandly proclaiming “Alas, poor Yorick”). I’m looking forward to seeing how the plot progresses, because as much as the idea of “Frankenstein’s Monster” has been present all my life, I actually don’t know what the conflict or climax of the story is!
I also recently started reading a horror story of a different kind: Saya no Uta, or “Song of Saya,” a visual novel about a medical student who has experimental brain surgery done to save his life and as a horrific, unexpected side effect, experiences the world as a gut-splattered hellscape. The only thing he perceives normally is a girl named Saya who he’s become totally dependent on, while drifting away from all his old friends. Our protagonist seems to be of an antisocial bent even without the whole senses-warped thing, and I definitely think he seems prone to do some dangerous things in the future. Plus, there’s no way that Saya’s really a cute girl, right? The gross horror visuals are really…visceral, and I’m interested in seeing how protagonist Fuminori copes (or not) with his plight, and who Saya is. So I think once I’ve finished it I’ll write a review-type-post of it!
This is another kind of unfocused, status-update post, but in the near future I can promise writing excerpts, doodles, and my thoughts on Saya no Uta!
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